Error analysis of the converted wave deduced by equivalent velocity assumption

Based on the assumption of the equivalent velocity and offset, the converted wave travel-time equation, which has a double square root due to the asymmetric ray-path of the down-going P-wave and the up-coming S-wave, can be transformed into a single square root equation if the common scatterpoint (CSP) gathers are binned. This method simplifies the equation and decreases the errors of converted wave migration transferred by P-wave velocity error, compared to the equivalent offset method (EOM) migration proposed by Bancroft, Geiger and Foltinek. In this paper, the errors caused by the introduction of equivalent velocity for the PS-wave are analysed in detail. The discrete errors and effects introduced by discretization of the equivalent offset are presented, and finally the conditions for applying CSP gathers for PS-wave processing under the control of reasonable error limits are derived.